![]() ![]() In 1895, Thérèse wrote a manuscript about her childhood, under obedience and at the direction of the prioress-who happened to be Thérèse’s older sister, Pauline (Mother Agnes, in religious life). Instead, Thérèse wrote it in three parts at the direction of other people. But most people don’t realize that this profound spiritual testament was not written all at once or even for one person. Thérèse’s famous autobiography, The Story of a Soul, has been translated and re-translated many times. Dying slowly of a disease which makes it difficult to breathe did not make it easier for Thérèse to bear her sense of spiritual isolation from God. While a true “dark night of the soul” (which Thérèse unquestionably experienced) is a spiritual phenomenon in which God no longer seems to be present to the person, her physical suffering with tuberculosis shouldn’t be overlooked. ![]() This also may partially explain one of the hallmarks of Thérèse’s autobiographical story: the time of spiritual darkness that she experienced at the end of her life. Although a final photo of Thérèse, lying on a couch and covered with blankets outside her convent, shows only her face, it’s easy to see her weight loss and exhaustion. During Thérèse’s lifetime, tuberculosis was often called consumption, because it slowly consumed the patient. For that reason, we tend not to know what it was like to suffer from tuberculosis. Thérèse died of an infectious disease that is now treatable and preventable, although it was considered fatal before the development of antibiotics. ![]() The canonization process for another Martin daughter, Léonie, was introduced in 2015. Louis and Zelie Martin, however, unquestionably prepared their daughters well to become faithful Catholics as adults, so well that all five became nuns. But there have been plenty of scoundrels in holy Catholic families over the centuries, and faithful parents do not always produce faithful children. It is tempting to think that Thérèse’s status as a saint was preordained given the fact that both her parents lived blameless lives and have recently been canonized as well. Would your personal letters prove to the pope that you were a saint? Pope Pius XI must have been convinced because he approved Thérèse’s canonization after a mere twenty-eight years (not the standard fifty years) following her death. Her letters to family members show her loving concern for them, as well as her humility, cheerfulness, intelligence, and, yes, her holiness. Her poems, plays, prayers, and letters, as well as records of the final conversations she had with other nuns before her death, were all studied and are now available in print. One of the best-kept secrets about Thérèse is that her autobiography is not the only document that was examined during her canonization process. What more is there to say about a woman whose autobiography has been a bestseller since a few years after her death in 1897? Her autobiography was published posthumously, and innumerable Catholics have called upon her to fulfill her deathbed promise, that is, that she would “send down a shower of roses from the heavens” to those who asked for her intercession. She became a Carmelite nun and spent the rest of her short life in that monastery until her death from tuberculosis at the age of twenty-four. ![]() Thérèse recognized God’s call to religious life when she was still a teenager, and she entered the Carmelite monastery of Lisieux when she was only fifteen years old. Her mother died of breast cancer when she was only four years old, but she was raised by her loving father and four older sisters. Thérèse was born in 1873 in Alençon, France, into a middle class, devout family. If a given Catholic church has any statues of saints at all, Saint Thérèse is probably depicted by one of those statues.īecause of Thérèse’s popularity, most Catholics know the basic outlines of her life story. Marie Françoise-Thérèse Martin, the Little Flower, Doctor of the Church-whatever you call her, Saint Thérèse of Lisieux is one of the most popular Catholic saints in the world. ![]()
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